3 Daughters Brewery Prepares for Growth in 2015

3 Daughters Brewing recently celebrated their one year anniversary on Friday, Dec. 12th. The party was definitely a blowout, featuring speeches by co-owner Mike Harting and St. Petersburg mayor Rick Kriseman. For a rundown of the party, I went back to 3 Daughters’ awesome co-owner Leigh Harting for information on the party, Florida distribution of 3 Daughters beer, and what 2015 holds for them.

How was Friday?

Great. It was one of our busiest days. We really appreciated Mayor Rick Kriseman coming by to drink one of our aged beers. He did the ribbon cutting last year, so it was great to have him back.

Can you believe it’s only been one year? You’ve grown pretty aggressively.

It is hard to believe that it has been a year already. We have grown aggressively, but the market was ready for it.

And you’re starting to expand into Publix, right?

Yes, Publix stores in Tampa, St. Petersburg, and Sarasota for right now. This week we are going on the shelves in select Publix stores, so we are excited about that. We also have our beer in stores such as Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, Locale Market, Mazzarros, and more.

Statewide, we have our beer at Total Wine and More, ABC Fine Wine, Winn-Dixie, and others.

Are you looking at other places for your taps? I know Bold City was pretty excited about being featured at Disney.

We actually are at Disney starting January 3rd. Our 1st tap will be at Typhoon Lagoon. We will actually have 7 taps at the water park. We will also be at ESPN Wide World of Sports. I think kudos go to Disney for realizing that the market is moving towards craft beers.

We are also at places like Busch Gardens, Amalie Arena with the Tampa Bay Lightning, and Tropicana Field with the Tampa Bay Rays.

I’m a big Lightning fan. Where are you at the Amalie Arena?

It was Paradise Cove, now it’s Rumfish Grill. They have our Beach Blonde Ale. It’s a great match, and we have a really good relationship with them.

So, what’s on the horizon for 2015?

Our 1st year was about laying the foundation. We wanted to get our brewery and lab set up. Brewing the 1st great beer is easy. Brewing the 2nd, 5th, 5000th great beer that tastes just like the first is hard.

In 2015, we want our beer to be a household name. We’ll be doing more marketing campaigns, more sponsorships and focusing on expanding in markets in Florida. 2015 will be about increasing awareness of our cans. We have 2 in market now and 2 more coming in the first quarter of next year, so we want people to know they can find it on taps or in stores.

One thing we did was purchase a refrigerated truck. Generally, we use Anheuser-Busch distributors around the state. They work great as a team. But, for example, for North Florida to get our beer, it has to go through multiple distributors. We got a truck so we can deliver directly to distributors, or distribution hubs if we can’t deliver close, so local distributors can come pick it up.

And you’ll be set up to produce this much beer?

Absolutely. Right now we have capacity to make 6,000 gallons of beer every 2 weeks. We are waiting on delivery of 2 120-barrel fermentation tanks which will double brewing capabilities. In 2015 we’ll be ordering 18 more 120-barrel fermentation tanks.

That’s a lot. Will you use the fermentation tanks to expand the beer outside of Florida, or distribute different beers in Florida?

More beers in Florida. Right now, we have our Bimini Twist IPA and Beach Blonde Ale in cans. The cans for Summer Storm Oatmeal Stout and Channel Marker Red are currently in the design phase. Those four will be our year round offerings. We will also can 1-2 seasonals each quarter, such as our Oktoberfest and Brown Pelican Dunkelweizen (!!!!!).

You seem to have a great team set up to grow like you have.

We’re very much a family. We’re starting to grow now, but most people have been together for 3, 5, 10 years. (Co-Owner) Mike does the day to day operations; I do the sales and marketing and working with distributors. We just did a partnership with Ferg’s to be their inside menu sponsor for 2 years, and we also do events such as golf championships. (Head Brewer) Ty’s incredible. I’m amazed at his ability to dream up awesome beers and expand our portfolio of exceptional craft brews. When he tastes a beer, he can tell you everything about it.

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I’m not going to lie, I’m pretty excited about their new cans. Channel Marker Red and Summer Storm Oatmeal Stout are fantastic. Looking forward to more from them!